Rollibot Automatic Vacuum

My wife and I bought our Rollibot robot vacuum cleaner and it has been one of the coolest items we have bought off Amazon.  The Rollibot cleans all of the dog hair in our house plus all of the loose dirt. Since we run it once a day we only have to empty the compartment when it is done.  It is a rather large compartment but if we ran it weekly we would have to empty it more than once as our dog sheds a lot.  I would suggest buying a pack of filters for it as it cleans much better with a clean filter.  I usually spray the filter, let it dry, and swap it out for the dry one.  

The pros:

• Large compartment for dirt
• Somewhat intelligent has 4 cleaning methods
• Picks up all loose hair and dirt
• Cheaper than most models that do a decent job
• Can be programmed to clean at a certain time
• Has mopping capability (I never use this feature)

How to Buy a Car on Craigslist

My wife’s car stop working so we had to purchase another car for her.  My parents have been buying cars successfully on craigslist for several years and so that is the route we decided to go. 

The first step in this process is determining a budget and what kind of car you would like to purchase.  My wife wanted a small SUV and I set the budget so that was a very easy step for us.  This is important because as the weeks dragged on and we still had not found a car without these two items already addressed we would have either settled for something she did not want or overpay.

The second step is look for cars on craigslist.  We bookmarked and contacted the cars we wanted to look at.  We referenced the asking price vs Kelly Blue Book’s price and if it was close we looked at the cars.  My parents had always traveled to look at the cars but my wife asked for the cars to meet us next to our mechanic and most of them did.  This was probably the hardest part for us as I was

How to Listen to News Articles in the Car

I use three different apps (Feedly, Pocket, IFTTT) to listen to a variety of news articles while I am in the car.  You could just use pocket to subscribe to different websites and blogs but Pocket does not allow you to unsubscribe which is why I gather my news articles through Feedly and then send them to Pocket using IFTTT. 

Step 1: Find news and blogs to follow on Feedly.

Step 2: Create a rule on IFTTT.  Mine is if new article from category Pocket, then save later for pocket.

Step 3: Download Pocket to your mobile device.  I set Pocket to download articles everyday only on Wi-Fi.  Finally select the article you want to listen to and in the top right of Pocket select Listen (TTS) and you will be good to go. 

Step 4:  If I really like the article I save it to E

vernote so I will have it forever.

How I Minimize My Allergies

I minimize my allergies using a combination of medicine, health care products and food. My doctor has recommended allergy shots for me but because of my job I cannot keep the time commitment. If you have the time to receive allergy shots then that is what I would recommend. My brother received them when he was a teenager and has since completed his regimen and has not had problems since. The process I use keeps me clear for the majority of the spring. Instead of being sick all day I am week one or two weeks a year.

The first items I use to fight allergies is Claritin D. Zyrtec no longer works for me so I take a Claritin D every day. Every morning I start the day using a neti pot and drinking ¼ of a class of carrot juice. The neti pot was recommended by my doctor and the carrot juice was recommended by a coworker. Both the neti pot and the carrot juice help keep my nose clear and free from mucus. I also fill my coffee with local honey which I buy at an Amish store. Local honey is filled with a little pollen which helps my body get used to it. If you are extremely allergic I would be careful with local honey.

Honeymooning in Jamaica Tips and Tricks

After my wife and I got married we went on our honeymoon in Jamaica.  It was absolutely everything we wanted it to be but reflecting on the trip there are some things that we wish we would have known before we ventured out.

1. Have transportation from the airport to your hotel
Walking out of the airport after customs is a crazy experience.  There are people trying to sell you everything from souvenirs, to alcohol, to transportation to your hotel.  Transportation to your hotel is the most important item but then comes who do you trust in a new country.  This can all be taken care of there but if you do not want the added stress there then make plans ahead of time.  This can be done several ways but I would suggest you call the hotel you are staying at and ask them to recommend some companies.  Then call the companies and make your reservation.

How to be Productive While in the Car

I spend many hours every week in the car between commuting to work and driving places for my work.  I used to listen to the radio but as my life became busier and busier I wanted that time to be productive in some way to allow me to relax when I got home.  These are the four ways I try and use the time in my car and all of these ways use my smartphone.

1. Listen to podcasts
The first way I thought about being more productive was to make myself a better person by listening to self-help items on the radio.  I found that it was easier for me to find items that could educate me in a number of different areas.  To load the podcasts onto my smartphone I use iTunes along with SyncTunes (the free version).  I chose podcasts dealing with personal finance (Dave Ramsey and Money Girl), religion (Your Move), and psychology (The Savvy Physiologist).

How to Budget Using Mint

If you do not want to pay for a budgeting tool and are not using Mint then you are making a big mistake.  Mint allows you to create a zero based budget, track and categorize your transactions, and create and track goals for your finances.  This article will concentrate on how I use Mint to create a zero based budget.

The first item when creating your budgets is deciding what you need to budget for and creating a budget for them on the budget page on Mint's homepage.  When creating a budget you need to know what your allocation for that expense is going to be.  Another selection you have is selecting if you want the budget to roll over to the next month.  While this is an awesome feature I do not use it since I create a new budget for each month.